The Visionaries

Finding the pictures of the Nature Preserve the other day also reminded me that I said I would come back and share some more sculptures with you from the Botanical Gardens that we visited in Myrtle Beach.

This one features the couple that founded the gardens.

A poem written by the husband of the couple:

And another nature shot because I took hundreds of them that day.

So pretty, isn't it?  I could have easily spent days in those gardens.  We spent two days there and felt like we were rushing to see all there was there.  Just a beautiful, peaceful place to be.

Living the life in Florida!

Nature Preserve at Huntington Beach State Park

I have had pink eye for days and days now, which means I can't wear my contacts.  Because I can't wear my contacts, I can't play pickleball.  Because I can't play pickleball, I have stayed home and tried to do some photo editing/organizing.  Which is how I came across this little gem that I forgot to share with you before.

Huntington Beach, not only has the beach and the campground, it also has this wonderful little nature preserve complete with boardwalk.

I can't believe that I missed this when sharing our Myrtle Beach fun before!

It was really beautiful.  We didn't see a whole lot of animals but the other nature was worth the walk there.

Living the life in earth's splendor!

Myrtle Beach SC to Wauchula FL

Yesterday we headed south for our yearly migration to Florida.  We went halfway landing in Brunswick, Georgia.  We originally planned to spend a week there before heading to Florida but someone was anxious to get to Florida and asked if we could skip Georgia, so we agreed to alter our plans so we could accommodate that request.

We hit heavy traffic and it rained hard the second day so travel was slow.  Much slower than it normally is.  We were so happy to get to one of the places we call "home" which is Peace River Thousand Trails.  Our friend Buddy and his pretty partner Diane are here.  Rich and Donna are supposed to arrive at the end of this week.  We picked out a nice spot that we hope to stay at for the next several months.

We will miss the beach while we are here but we will not miss the tempting (read fattening) food that we encountered in SC.  This is one example of the food we did come across and Austin was brave enough to eat.  Fried Corn:

We had fun what little bit of travel we did this year and we are looking forward to a wonderful winter with the good people that are here. 

Brookgreen Gardens~Animal Show

I've already shared so many of the neat parts of Brookgreen Gardens, but I didn't want to forget this part before I move on because we enjoyed it so much.  While we were sitting and eating our lunch, we heard this neat woman doing a Meet the Animals show.

We headed over there after we were done eating so we could catch the rest of the show.  I'm glad we did because we got there in time for Nathan to make friends with a snake.

Not to be outdone by a grown man, this cutie pie followed suit:

His sister was thinking thanks but no thanks.  Same as me!  We also got to meet an eastern screech owl.

She/He was a real beauty.  Completely calm during the whole show like she'd been a stage star her whole life.

We had a great time learning lots of neat facts and being a bit more up close and personal with the animals!

Brookgreen Gardens~The Sculptures

There are so many fabulous parts to this place that it is impossible to say which part is the best.  I can say that the sculptures were the most surprising part to us.

We knew there would be some sculptures from the website, but we didn't truly envision how many there were and how grand some of them were.

It is hard to put into words how emotionally touching they were.

 

There were so many and they were all so beautiful that it was hard to absorb it all.  I couldn't even begin to share them all here.  I am going to share a few today and share some more later.

The Birds at Myrtle Beach State Park

I couldn't share the birds at one State Park and not share the birds at the other.  So here are the birds from Myrtle Beach State Park.  Except most of the birds there were different than what we saw at Huntington.

I did capture this cutie pie having a joyful time chasing the birds on the beach:

The Birds at Huntington Beach

When we visited Myrtle Beach State Park, we asked about Huntington and the lady who worked there said, "We have a fishing pier and they have alligators".  While we didn't see alligators, we did see a lot of other animals including birds.

 

I love watching birds on the beach.  They just go hand in hand to me.

 When we visited the store here, I was chatting with an employee.  We talked about workamping and what went along with it.  She told me her two most interesting things to date were when the alligators were mating and the males went in the campground area and did not want to leave causing quite the stir and an incident involving a snake. 

 I almost don't want to share the snake one, because it might stick in my mind and I might not want to stay here after all.

Ok, I guess I'll share it.  A young man was looking for turtle shells and he came across a water moccasin instead, landing him a nice bite from the snake.  By the time he made it to her, his arm was turning black.  Can't say I would want to encounter either one of those things, but I still do love interacting with animals in nature.

 

I am really going to miss this when we leave here!

Brookgreen Gardens~The Lowcountry Zoo

We decided to hit the zoo as one of the first stops at Brookgreen Gardens.  The first thing we noticed is how natural the environment was.  It is probably the most untouched animal areas we have ever witnessed at a zoo.

Because there were so many trees, this made the animal area very cool temperature wise.  We enjoyed the shade and cooler weather and I'm hoping that means the animals did too.

All of the animals here were rescued or were born in captivity.  All of the animals are not able to be released back into the wild.  They have animals that are native to the swamps, woods and waters of the Lowcountry.  They also have domestic animals to the Plantation.  We saw a great number of animals from alligators to river otters, my favorite being the bald eagle who was a bit feisty.

I can't forget a picture of an owl for Miss Aubs.

We really enjoyed this part of Brookgreen.

Living the life in SC!

Huntington Beach State Park

Across the street from Brookgreen Gardens is the Huntington Beach State Park.  We had visited one state park this week so I didn't expect this to be much different.  As soon as we walked out on the beach area though, I saw it was very different.

 I said, ahhhhh....this is more like it.

Notice the lack of tall commercial buildings here?  It makes all the difference in the world to me.  Here I can simply focus on nature.  I can focus on the huge fluffy clouds that so nicely offset the ocean below.

We walked and walked here, snapping pictures along the way.

If we make it back to Myrtle Beach, this is where we want to stay!  They have a full service campground that was quite nice.  They have a store and they offer wi-fi.  That and the beach is all we need!

 Living the life in NC!

Brookgreen Gardens

 I stumbled across Brookgreen Gardens online and I almost didn't visit because I didn't know if I wanted to forfeit my beach time to visit a botanical garden.  My reasoning was that we can visit gardens almost anywhere we visit but the beach is fairly rare as far as how often we can visit.

I'm so glad I pushed past that thinking and decided to branch out and see something different beyond just the beach fun.  I had no idea it would be as large or grand or interesting as it is.  This place ranks up there on our top ten list of attractions outside of natural attractions.  It is that great of a place.

 It is huge, with 9,100 acres.  It is well done and has a wonderful historic sense, having been founded in 1931 by Archer Huntington and Anna Hyatt Huntington.  It is quite frankly, breathtaking.  I must have said wow at least once every ten or fifteen minutes.

First off, are the trees.  The amazing, some of them 300 year old, trees.

Then there are the gardens.  The gardens are laid out the shape of a spread wing butterfly.  There are different sections, each with its own theme and beauty.  It would take me hours to describe them so I'll just point you to the website: here.   

As we walked through them we were so taken by how many spaces were made just to sit and take in the beauty for as long as you'd like.

 

There are water features throughout the gardens.

And there are even spaces for children's fun in the Children's Peace Garden.

 The gardens alone would have been well worth the visit.  On top of the gardens,  there is also a wildlife refuge and incredible art galleries and sculptures.  I'll leave the other parts for another day because there is just too much to tell to fit in one blog post.

If you are in the area, please visit this place.  Tickets are $12 for adults and they are good for a whole week.  You really can't beat that, can you?

Living the life in South Carolina!